Parents Madeleine McCann on Friday they were not at the mass vigil on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance. A family member said they were Kate and Gerry McCann went to a secret location as they needed a “long weekend vacation”.
“We’re sorry we can’t be with you tonight, but we thank you for coming together and sharing your hope for Madeleine and the other missing children. It’s been 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us. It’s hard to even say that number without we are not shaking our heads in disbelief. Although we are happy in many ways and can say that we now live a relatively normal and comfortable life, this ‘life in limbo’ is still very disturbing. And the absence still hurts,” read their apology the Reverend Robert Gladstone from the local parish, reports Daily Mail.
‘I’m not crazy’
An unexpected guest appeared at the vigil, Julia Wendell (22) better known as “fake Maddie”. She arrived in the company of friends, and she was carrying a letter in her hands that she wanted to give to the McCanns.
She later told local media that she was disappointed that the McCanns were not present, as she had traveled all the way from Poland to ask them a question.
“I’m Madeleine McCann and I’ve never stopped believing it. I came here to ask Kate and Gerry to make DNA test. They didn’t do one thing to prove that I’m not their daughter,” she said, adding that she’s “not lying” and “not crazy.”
In 2023, Julia began to attract attention after she started claiming to be Maddie on social media and insisted that she was actually the missing girl due to the similarity in their appearance. Her Instagram profile gathered more than a million followers, and she ended up on the front pages and guest on TV shows. Her story has spread so much around the world that a Swiss company used facial recognition software to check if Julia was indeed Madeleine McCann, but found no match.
A DNA test proved it wasn’t Maddie
“It’s practically impossible for a young Polish girl to be Maddie,” said the head of Ava-X Christian Fehrlin for Blick. And the results of the DNA test then showed that she was not related to the missing girl in any way.
Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 while on vacation in Portugal when she was only three years old. Her parents left her in bed with her brother and sister and went to have dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant. Since then, every trace of the girl has been lost, and the huge mystery and one of the most high-profile cases that shakes the British public and follows the whole world has still not been solved.
The latest gathering to mark the sad anniversary comes as the main suspect in the disappearance of little Maddie, Christian Brueckner, is on trial in Germany for gruesome sex crimes committed in Portugal unrelated to the case.
WATCH THE VIDEO: The body of the murdered Josip is still in Ireland. Father: ‘I came to a wall, I don’t know who to ask for help’
